Race report
Formula V8 3.5 Nürburgring
Nurburgring FR3.5: Rowland secures straightforward Saturday victory
Fortec's Oliver Rowland eased to his sixth victory of the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 season, successfully converting his pole position in the first Nurburgring race.
Valentin Khorounzhiy
Edited: Sep 12, 2015, 1:39 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Briton's win now sees him 49 points clear of nearest rival Matthieu Vaxiviere, the Frenchman having had to do with a fourth-place finish.
While Rowland delivered his usual good start, Tio Ellinas was somewhat slow off the line alongside and wound up going three-wide into Turn 1 with both Nyck de Vries and Tom Dillmann on his inside.
The Dutchman moved up into second, while Dillmann and Ellinas went wide, allowing Jazeman Jaafar and Vaxiviere through as well.
Over the first few laps, Rowland stretched his advantage over de Vries to three seconds as the rest of the frontrunners spread out behind them.
However, the field would be bunched up soon enough - with the safety car coming out after nine laps for two separate incidents.
First, Nicholas Latifi tried to pass Alfonso Celis for P11 with a late dive down the inside at Turn 1, but spun his car around and got stuck in the gravel.
But he avoided a much bigger accident when Bruno Bonifacio missed his braking point at the very same corner and slid next to the Canadian's stranded car.
The race restarted with 16 minutes left on the clock, Rowland needing just one sector to take his lead back to a full second.
Yet this time, de Vries managed to keep in touch, maintaining pace with Rowland as the laps ticked on.
Still, the Dutchman never got close enough to challenge, settling for his third runner-up finish of the campaign.
Vaxiviere kept on trying to salvage points as he attacked Rowland's teammate Jaafar for third, even diving down the inside of the Fortec driver with two minutes to go - but he ran wide, allowing Jaafar to easily retake the spot and complete the podium.
Dillmann and Ellinas finished fifth and sixth, ahead of Pietro Fantin, Gustav Malja, Egor Orudzhev and Celis.
Yu Kanamaru's debut FR3.5 race yielded 12th place as he finished half a second up on fellow debutant and teammate Rene Binder.
Pos. Driver Team Time/Gap 1 Oliver Rowland Fortec Motorsports 42'39.609 2 Nyck de Vries DAMS 1.239 3 Jazeman Jaafar Fortec Motorsports 10.690 4 Matthieu Vaxiviere Lotus 11.264 5 Tom Dillmann Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 12.635 6 Tio Ellinas Strakka Racing 13.540 7 Pietro Fantin International Draco Racing 14.986 8 Gustav Malja Strakka Racing 16.188 9 Egor Orudzhev Arden Motorsport 20.440 10 Alfonso Celis AVF 26.499 11 Marlon Stockinger Lotus 28.118 12 Yu Kanamaru Pons Racing 30.844 13 Rene Binder Pons Racing 31.401 14 Aurelien Panis Tech 1 Racing 37.860 15 Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 38.581 16 Beitske Visser AVF 44.832 Ret Nicholas Latifi Arden Motorsport Ret Bruno Bonifacio International Draco Racing Ret Roy Nissany Tech 1 Racing Ret Dean Stoneman DAMS
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Williams not "reaching for the moon"
Next article Misano MotoGP: Lorenzo takes pole from Marquez and Rossi
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Valentin Khorounzhiy
WTCR's April opener cancelled due to coronavirus
WTCR
WTCR
Hungaroring
Mar 13, 2020
WTCR's April opener cancelled due to coronavirus
Australian GP issues update on nine F1 paddock coronavirus tests
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Mar 12, 2020
Australian GP issues update on nine F1 paddock coronavirus tests
Motorsport Games unveils 15 disciplines for 2020
General
General Mar 11, 2020
Motorsport Games unveils 15 disciplines for 2020
More from
Jazeman Jaafar
Former F1 tester impresses on Supercars debut
Supercars
Supercars May 31, 2019
Former F1 tester impresses on Supercars debut
Historic result at the first ever 6 hour race in the Asian Le Mans Series
Asian Le Mans
Asian Le Mans
Buriram
Jan 14, 2018
Historic result at the first ever 6 hour race in the Asian Le Mans Series
Laurent on pole for the 6 Hours of Buriram
Asian Le Mans
Asian Le Mans
Buriram
Jan 12, 2018
Laurent on pole for the 6 Hours of Buriram
More from
Fortec Motorsports
What could have been: Jenson Button’s F3000 test, 25 years on
Formula 1
Formula 1 Nov 8, 2024
What could have been: Jenson Button’s F3000 test, 25 years on
Budget issue forces Fortec out of Misano F3 round
Formula European Masters
Formula European Masters Aug 24, 2018
Budget issue forces Fortec out of Misano F3 round
Fortec to make European F3 return in Hungary
Formula European Masters
Formula European Masters
Hungaroring
Jun 1, 2018
Fortec to make European F3 return in Hungary
Latest news
How Istanbul is revamping its F1 circuit to clinch long-term future
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Turkish GP
1 h
How Istanbul is revamping its F1 circuit to clinch long-term future
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 17 h
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 18 h
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
19 h
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe